Posted on 12/21/2004 9:55:45 AM PST by FreeMarket1
MORE DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS TO BE REGULATED?
Dec 20, 2004 - FreeMarketNews.com
by Michael A. Morning FMNN Health and Nutrition Correspondent
SPECIAL TO FREE-MARKET NEWS NETWORK, DEC. 20, 2004 -- In the past year, two significant federal dietary supplement legislations have banned previously legal supplements. But these initiatives are just the beginning of a renewed effort to actively pursue legislation against the dietary supplement industry. In Congress right now are three bills with much more far-reaching implications than the two passed this year.
There are those who oppose this trend, arguing that individual consumers should have the right to choose among nutritional products – and to determine what they should and should not ingest. The Health Information Independence Act (HR.4004) – opposing the trend of restricting nutritional choice - calls for a “restoration of rights” for American consumers who wish to retain the availability of a wide selection of dietary supplements.
In a speech introducing this bill, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) – a long-time free-market advocate - said the FDA’s “grocery store censorship” violated consumers’ First Amendment rights by preventing them from taking steps to improve their own health and further noted that, “the American people have made it clear they do not want the federal government to interfere with their access to dietary supplements.”
Looking out for the Consumer?
The new spate of proposed dietary regulations may be seen as a reaction, in part, to the steroid-scandal now engulfing Major League Baseball, in which several of the nation’s most prominent players have been linked to ingesting muscle-building – and health damaging - supplements. Proponents of increased regulations maintain that further safeguards are needed to ensure the nutritional protection of the American public.
The first and most visible of these proposed laws is S.722, the Dietary Supplement Safety Act, introduced by Senator Dick Durban (D-IL). This bill carries a number of weighty initiatives apparently aimed at counteracting certain freedom-of-choice safeguards contained in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) while opening the door to future FDA regulation and bans.
S.722 carries the following initiatives:
• Requires manufacturers to submit “adverse event reports” to the FDA for all complaints received regarding their products, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the “event”.
• Gives the FDA the authority to demand a manufacturer conduct market surveillance of any given product to check for adverse experiences from use and submit their findings to the FDA.
• Requires manufacturers to gain approval before bringing to market any product defined as a stimulant.
• Would place all products associated with or marketed for “muscle growth” under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
• Effectively shifts the burden of proof of a product’s safety from the FDA to the manufacturer, in direct opposition to the intent and wording of the DSHEA.
• Could allow a product to be banned following the submission of just a single isolated “adverse event”.
The bill has been portrayed by Senator Durbin and his supporters as a positive law for consumers – especially those searching outside of the remedies offered by the modern medical industry, and who may not be capable of sorting through manufacturers’ claims of various nutritional benefits.
Opponents maintain that the bill will increase bureaucracy and expense for supplement manufacturers, thereby hurting the free market development of new advancements and shutting out smaller companies from the ability to compete.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and The National Health Federation oppose S.722.
Less Visible but Stronger
A second, less visible bill pending in Congress is also much stronger than S.722. The Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act (HR.3377), introduced by Rep. Susan A. Davis (D-CA) simply suggests drug-like regulation of any and all products not classified as either a vitamin or mineral.
According to the specific wording of HR.3377, a “supplement” under the DSHEA would be amended to say any product that “does not bear or contain an herb or other botanical, an amino acid or a dietary substance used by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake”.
Under this bill, only basic vitamins and minerals would be left standing under the protections of the DSHEA and everything else would be reclassified and regulated as a drug.
Additional Funding
The third bill before Congress, less obvious in its regulatory aims, seeks millions more in funding for the FDA. The DSHEA Full Implementation & Enforcement Act of 2003 (S.1538), introduced by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), is an appeal for more than $100 million dollars spread out over several years to see to better enforcement of the DSHEA.
While the DSHEA contained significant nutritional freedom-of-choice safeguards, opponents fear that so much money flowing into the FDA earmarked to enforce DSHEA will ultimately result in a regulatory regime that will have a dampening effect on the entire supplement industry.
Senator Tom Harkins’ record is that of an avid proponent of federally-mandated consumer protection – and his new bill notes that eventually the FDA may require between $24 and $65 million dollars per year just to “enforce” the DSHEA.
Building on Previous Accomplishments
The above bills are part of a larger wave of laws recently passed that aim to reduce or eliminate the availability of various nutritional supplements that are seen by opponents as potentially hazardous to health.
The first of these came this past April in the ban of the popular weight-loss herb ma huang (ephedrine). While ephedrine has been used in Asia for thousands of years, the recent, highly-popularized death of at least one top U.S. athlete – inaccurately linked to ephedrine-ingestion – helped fuel support for the bill in Congress.
Next, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, was signed into law by President Bush last October and will become effective January 22, 2005. This bill bans all muscle-building supplements known as “prohormones”, with the exception of the mild testosterone-precursor dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), used typically by older males for combating the rigors of age on virility.
Prohormones drew the attention of mainstream America when it was learned that baseball home-run king Mark McGwire was using the then-popular prohormone androstenedione. Though considered safe and relatively mild ......... For the complete article visit us @ FreeMarketNews.com
Oh great. It looks like I will have to order more stuff throught the mail.
Friggin' corksuckers! --you know, the stopper on a bottle.
What did you think I meant? ;-)
"Some pollen-producing companies still use all three apiary product together. One such product administered together in large doses in a single morning played an important historical role in creating the federal Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM). The beneficiary was Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, and the quick eradication of his allergies led him to conclude that alternative therapies may be worth looking into. Harkin has since become the Senate's foremost champion of alternative medicine and the driving force behind the OAM."
In that light, please remember to implore him politely to KEEP up the good work on supplements, and not throw out the supplement baby with the DHEA bath...
Please check up the prior posts and see what they say about 'herbs, amino acids, vitamins'...
Cheers!
Right you are, cyborg. Americans certainly don't deserve to be any healthier than people living in mud huts. By all means, let's "standardize" nutrition worldwide so Hitlery can feel virtuous.
Let's ban Prozac, too. There have been many adverse events. Ohh, I forgot, Prozac benefits politically connected drug companies, while unregulated supplements are a threat to them.
While we're at it, we'd better add water to the list, too. Water poisoning sometimes afflicts overzealous exercisers who drink too much of the suspicious stuff.
I have a question that came to me last night -- these "steroids" they are screaming about baseball players using... are they talking DHEA? Personally I consider DHEA a good thing if used correctly. I work for a MD and he became interested in DHEA and started at his own expense running DHEA tests in blood tests for his elderly patients -- what he found was the sicker the patients were the lower their DHEA levels are... I could tell you so many stories of health-restored from correct use of supplements instead of drugs... but, everything aside this control over our lives by the WTO and big business is getting REALLY old!!!!
Are you taking it? How much? A chiropractor friend suggested it to me, gave me the number of a testing outfit butI never followed up. And no, I don't think that's what athletes take, but I could be wrong. I think they get special designer steroids.
I could tell you so many stories of health-restored from correct use of supplements instead of drugs...
Yes indeed. A great diet and mega-supplements always work for me and mine. When he was 7, my son was always sick, finally ended up in the hospital for a week for testing, but they discovered nothing. Meanwhile I read a book by Adele Davis, famous nutritionist of her day. Her chapter on Vitamin C sounded just like my son, so I brought him home, gave him mega-doses, and his condition cleared up and stays cleared up as long as he takes his supplements. So easy!
. but, everything aside this control over our lives by the WTO and big business is getting REALLY old!!!!
It's extremely frightening. Maybe we can find organizations that are fighting Codex Alimentarium and lend our support.
At the time Adele Davis was the only "expert" out there and Rodale Press was really getting a foothold -- from Davis's book Lets Get Well we followed the instructions for the liver (not cheap even back then) and she actually started to improve.
Her improvement had the doctors scratching their heads and finally she fessed up to what she was doing -- the doctor laughed and laughed and then said it "couldn't hurt" anything but he knew if the drugs didn't work vitamins certainly weren't going to do any good -- finally she was feeling so well that he put her back into the hospital -- did a new liver biopsy -- and then came into her room and asked her what book she read because he wanted to read it himself -- her liver had totally regenerated itself. That was back in the 70's. Today my mother is in her mid-70's and manages a very busy real estate office in California.
That is only one of several stories... there is our dog we kept from having major surgery on both hips by giving her the correct supplements while they stabilized her for surgery... today, 18 months later, she is painfree and still surgery-free.. she received a Boswella capsule each day for her joints... which, by the way, Boswella is a natural substance that is a safe alternative to Vioxx, Celebrex, Aleve (all on the list of NSAIDS that may cause heart problems).. so, no the drug companies don't want us to have access to these things, might make them unnecessary!
Oh, yes, I heard yesterday that Aleve is made by Bayer (one of the three German offshoot companies from WWII)...
Dang. And I thought the opprossevive nanny state thing was atleast domestically inspired.
Right now we have a dog with CUshings SYndrome and she is getting DHEA as part of her nutritional regimine ( sometimes it seems I spend more on supplements for my dogs than my husband and myself)...
It's interesting if you set your supplement according to blood test results you can with time restore your body to balance... we've been doing this with my husband who actually suffered from too low cholesterol (89) and I found on Dr. Mercola's site that this is actually a problem brought on from the "Low Fat Diet Craze" and there was a specific supplement he recommended that worked to get rid of the "sludge." We ordered it (not cheap -- and not from Mercola) and sure enough took about 6 months to see complete turn-around but it worked along with tweaking a few other things.
What's too bad is that more doctors don't work with your blood work and the patient to restore health rather than mask poor health -- but then I remember -- if they "cure" you they lose a patient (no offense to doctors on Free Republic) same with vets and our dogs.
The worst example I ever saw: I was married to a man I absolutely loved. He was a diabetic, saw his doctor monthly and followed his diabetic diet to the letter. Trouble was, he poured in a quart of vodka daily too and became a seriously nasty alcoholic. I made an appointment to see his doctor who affirmed, surprise surprise, that alcohol was terrible for a diabetic. "Will you help me get him off it?" "No, I'd lose him as a patient."
I like Dr. Mercola too and consider his advice the best on the Net.
Thanks for the info on DHEA. Interesting about your dog . My grrrrrrrrl's blood tests reveal a similar conditionn creeping up on her. May I ask how much DHEA per pound you give your dog?
I discovered pregnenolone, a pre-hormonal substance, tried it out, and got excellent results. Very energy enhancing. It is, however, the one thing my doc, thankfully very hip to nutrition, wants to keep an eye on and test for from time to time. I've run the rest of my program past him and he likes it. A couple of years ago, he had to put me on a weeklong course of steroids for very inflamed ground hornet bites. Was that ever fun! I was leaping tall buildings and can readily see why athletes use them. They make you feel 100% stronger and give you incredible endurance. My daughter and her friend had come to the big city to shop with me that weekend and I ran both of them into the ground. I only wish I could maintian my Mom on Steroids status. LOL
Flaky skin is no longer flaking, hair is growing back and she's lost 2 1/2 inches off her waistline.
The only thing I'm slightly suprised is the whole NWO angle. Of course the first rule of the NWO is no one talks about the NWO.
"As far as I'm concerned the DEA can stick to monitoring supplement manufacturing facilities for cleanliness. They don't even do that very well."
Many makers of supplements have facilities superior to those of the big, expensive drug manufacturers.
I hope that this can be beaten back. If not many of us are in grave trouble unless we can get out of the country to purchase what we need.
Where will you go? This is a UN project to be applied to every country in the world. Germany and Norway have already caved. Most countries represented at WHO have caved except the UK and USA. If our country caves, we'll have to set up sub rosa manufacturing in our basements and make our own vitamins. Sort of like bathtub gin during Prohibition.
Read on through the thread and click the link at my post #16. Whenever you have surfing time, google Codex Alimentarium from time to time for updates, which are hard to come by as this commie UN subagency operates on the sly.
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